The other night, I went to catch the train. A snow storm was on the way, so I was walking as fast as possible to get home before it hit. I was trekking along at a good pace and day dreaming, when I found myself behind a slow walking homeless man.

He was smoking a cigarette, that is what first caught my attention, and taking up the entire sidewalk. I admit, I was irritated by the smell of smoke and became doubly irritated when I was trying to pass him, but he was not allowing it.

Determined to keep my fast pace, as I tried to pass on his left, I politely said, “Excuse me, Sir.” As I said this, his left eye caught sight of me AND…

He cheerfully said, “A very Happy New Year to YOU!”

To which I replied, “And a Happy New Year to YOU too.”

He was so cheery, I had to smile at his greeting. At that point, we were walking side by side. I didn’t think it would be polite to speed past him. So, I kept pace with him.

He then said in a commanding tone of voice…

“This snow storm is coming, you know we ALL want to stay home tomorrow. I’m preparing my speech for my Boss when I call in sick in the morning.

I am going to tell him I can’t come in, because I have LEAKY BOOTS. Yes, my boots are leaking everywhere. There is so much water coming out of my “leaky boots” that it is impossible to come into work. My boots will be leaking and squeaking everywhere. I need to spend the day finding new boots.”

He caught me off guard with this funny story. I was laughing uncontrollably. LEAKY BOOTS, now that was a new one! I imagined his Manager thinking, “LEAKING BOOTS? Do I give him a free day or tell him to stuff his leaking boots with newspaper and get the heck into work!?”

He was thrilled that I found humor in his thought process. I truly could not stop laughing, a combination of his story, but the sound of his voice was so convincing that “leaky boots” were a major problem.

THEN, he laughed and said, “Creative writing classes come in handy.”

As a writer, his comment about “creative writing classes” made me laugh even harder. Of course, writers are always trying to be creative, and he sure hit the mark!

Parting ways at the train stop, I thanked him for giving me such a good belly laugh!

He smiled and said, “My pleasure, a good evening to you young lady.”

He got an additional 1000 brownie points for referring to me as a “young lady!”